Shaded Past
by Setzertrancer
Summary: This is a crappy first experimental story, will never be updated, do not read or you'll assume the rest of my stories are this bad.
1. Clyde of Mobliz

**FF6-fanfic Shadowed Past**

_I'm a huge fan of Final Fantasy 6 and so I've decided to do my first fanfic on shadow and his adventures before the events in the game, I've done a bit of research into his past but no one is entirely sure what happened. So this is my version and may not coincide with other opinions._

**Chapter One – Clyde of Mobliz**

"Clyde, come on what are you doing?" questioned a voice from ahead of him. "Hold on I need to get my shoes on" replied Clyde. Quickly he slid the shoe laces around each other and formed a double knot, so as to make sure it wouldn't come undone. Clyde stood up and surveyed his surroundings knowing he wouldn't see them for sometime. The village was very small and had room for only a population of 25 or so. A smallwoodlandstretched to the west, to the east was the beach and then the ocean and the south stretched the mysterious Veldt. He had been told as a kid to stay away from the Veldt because it had a magical enchantment which caused monsters to appear. He'd never believed in magic and so went to the Veldt to find his own meat occasionally. The strange thing he noticed however was that all he ever saw on the Veldt were chickens, sheep, stray cats, cows and other common animals which he had seen before why weren't there any pigs or other animals which he had heard of elsewhere. But he didn't care anymore he was leaving this town now, which he looked forward to because he had been itching to see the outside world rather then staying in this stagnant tiny town, in which he had spent his entire childhood and teenage hood.

The man ahead continued towards the south of the town to a demountable that was set up there.A couple of other men were waiting in line. Posters were put up around the demountable and Clyde just walked past a sign nailed into the dirt path which exclaimed in large black letters 'New Recruits this way -->'. Some of the Posters had slogans written on them promoting recruitment. Clyde waited in line and began to imagine and anticipate the new locales he could see and explore. One of the people in the line signed a form in the reception window and then jumped into the back of a carriage attached to chocobos. Chocobos are large horse sized, yellow birds that cannot fly.

The next person in line stepped up to the window and the receptionist began asking him some questions. Clyde observed the length of the line. He was nearly there; he was nearly free of this boring town. The town had been fine when he was too young to realise that there was a huge world he was missing out on seeing. The reason he was joining the Imperial army was because he couldn't afford to see the world any other way. Most people were to poor to leave the town they were born in, because chocobos were too expensive and because the creatures living in the wilderness were too dangerous. The line shortened again; there was only one person in front of him now. His friend was standing behind him. His freind'sname was Ren and was the only person in the town his age and shared many of his ambition to see the world outside this tiny town. He was finally up.

The man at the reception of the demountable put the recent recruit's papers into a file. He was wearing a soft leather brown cap and soft leather armor adorned with the symbols representing the Empire. He looked forward to wearing these uniforms he thought. They looked intimidating. "All right sir I need some basic information from you" exclaimed the receptionist. Clyde nodded with a smile. "Your age?". The receptionist asked "19 as of a month ago" replied Clyde. "Place of birth?" "Mobliz" replied Clyde. "Any special talents?", "Uh not really" replied Clyde. "Then I guess you'll be another Infantry, welcome to the Imperial army". Clyde was relieved for a second he thought they weren't going to let him in. "Okay then sign here and here and here". Clyde signed without hesitation and sprang towards the caravan waited for his friend and then the chocobos began dragging the caravan to the south and Clyde's first experiences of the rest of the world.


	2. Vector

**Chapter 2 – Vector**

Clyde arrives in Vector and soon discovers that army was nothing like he had imagined. Rated T contains mild sexual references and mild graphic violence.

_The first chapter may be boring but I was only establishing Clyde's starting identity It's going to get better here on in I promise._

(One long caravan ride, one long ship ride and another long caravan ride later). Clyde looked out of the caravan flap and saw the largest mass of mountains he had ever seen, they were on both sides of the caravan. Over the horizon a black metal tower began to rise the recruits began to talk joyously about the fun, prostitutes and money they would get now that they were in the Imperial army. "Vector up ahead" announced the Receptionist who was now the caravan driver. The clouds around Vector were darker then the rest of them and funnels of smog were rising out of most of the buildings. Clyde noticed this and became slightly sick to the stomach, but his emotions emphasised his wonder at the size the city. He thought the world would be made of villages like his. The caravan stopped an hour later as the tower ahead seemed to grow and more buildings popped up around it. There was a metal gate in front of them covered in a black substance. Clyde looked around and saw that the city walls were also covered in the same black substance. The grass was also dead around the city in a strangely perfect circle. A guard opened the grimy gates and the caravan slipped through. The scene worsened as Clyde saw grime covered houses that looked more like shanties. They had brick walls and a roof but they were small and many didn't have windows or doors. People with missing legs and arms dragged themselves through the street begging mostly soldiers and well dressed noblemen for money.

The further they travelled toward the middle of the city the more it improved but the black grime got denser. The caravan arrived at the tower they had seen miles back and was sticking out of a massive building about 10 times the size of Clyde's home town. Lined up outside the front of the structure were thousands of soldiers, some in brown and some in green. He guessed this was a command structure as the dominant color was brown. The receptionist asked them to line up with the rest of the soldiers. Clyde took his place near the front and Ren was led to a different area. Looking up out of the crowd he could see a large exotic balcony slightly less covered in grime the rest of the building. The balcony was up high where all the soldiers could see it. Clyde stared at the balcony expecting something to happen as did everyone else. A man emerged from the opening and the soldiers began to cheer, Clyde joined in. He was an aged man of about 60 and wore highly exotic cloths that were so colourful it made him look like a shining light in the middle of the depressing black. "Welcome!" he shouted in a booming voice "How nice of you all to join me". His wrinkled face transformed to a menacing smile as if he was mocking the people before him, as if he believed he was as much better then the people below his as he was higher then them. It was incredible how much that smile could show about the man. "My name is Emperor Gestahl and you are all my expendable fodder". The crowd suddenly dropped into silence and wondered if they heard correctly.

"Muahahahahahahaha! You fools your lives are mine now". The crowd were waiting for the joke to finish; they were waiting for the punch line, they were waiting for him to say that he was kidding. "I'm not kidding, you are all slaves to the emperor now, you will not see your families again and you will never return home until the entire world is owned by me". The emperor surveyed the crowd and smiled at their dumbfounded faces. Clyde's heart began beating really fast he was getting extremely scared that this joke wouldn't conclude. "What about the pay promised in what we signed?" yelled one of the new soldiers. "Oh yes you will be paid well, but will be lucky to spend it in your lifetimes. A few of the soldiers in the back began to make a run for it, before they took two steps some of the green dressed soldiers shot them in the back, causing a red waterfall to form down the large stairs. "That by the way is what happens to any deserters. The wait for the punch line was over, everyone realised that this was very real after all. "You will all be training 14 hours a day starting tomorrow, you will buy your own food and we are going to expand this glorious empire in one month". "Muahahahahaha!" he finished as he walked back into the dark space behind him. The green soldiers raised their rifles and began forcing the recruits to the barracks inside the castle. Each soldier was provided with a raised plank of wood and a pillow and everyone was forced to lie on their wood and contemplate their lives. Clyde was still waiting for the nightmare to end, he was still waiting to wake up in his nice soft bed in Mobliz and he was waiting for his chicken soup for breakfast. But the next morning he was lying on a plank of wood and got whipped across the face by green soldier holding a whip; this was going to be a very bad and very long nightmare.

_Okay sorry about that, next chapter Clyde will meet Baram and Interceptor I promise._


	3. The Door

**Chapter 3 – The Door**

_Sorry this chapter took so long, I had to write it twice because the first one really sucked._

Clyde brought his hand up to stop a flow of blood which was now gushing from his cheek. The green soldier holding the whip raised it threateningly "Get out of bed and get back to the stairwell NOW!" yelled the green soldier. "Okay I'm going" replied Clyde, he walked away from the soldier as quickly as he could towards a doorway that was blocked by a heap of soldiers dressed in their brown uniforms that were trying to get away from the whip, which some of them were already bleeding from. Clyde changed as quickly as he could into the uniform that he both admired and hated in the same day. He observed the green soldier and noticed that seemed devoid of emotion and wasn't showing neither anger nor hate nor sympathy when he whipped people and when he raised his voice, even though it was loud it wasn't actually emotive. This was one of the strangest things Clyde ever noticed about another human being and began to wonder if he was a human being after all.

Clyde assembled with the rest of the soldiers on the large area where Emperor Gestahl spoke to them earlier. The brown soldiers were divided into groups of 20 and each was assigned with one of the green soldiers. Clyde was lucky enough to get the soldier he was already acquainted with. The day consisted of almost never ending training and exercise for 14 hours straight, after 7 hours however the soldiers were actually given a half hour break which they were all surprised by. During the break Clyde noticed the receptionist he met earlier sitting on one of the steps. Near him was a trail of dried blood running down the stairs remaining from yesterday. The bodies were nowhere to be seen at least. Clyde walked up to the receptionist who was also in a brown uniform. "Did you know this would happen!" Clyde asked the man. "What! No of course not, I'm just as surprised as you". Clyde grabbed his collar and pulled him up. "You have been in this army a while haven't you!" He Demanded. "Ye- Yes but not much longer then you, I, I was in one of the first towns they visited and they assigned me to a recruitment team, I swear I didn't know the true intention of the empire until yesterday". "Fine" said Clyde "I believe you". Clyde released his hold and sat next to the receptionist on the steps. "I'm Clyde" He said. "Nice to meet you" "I'm Baram" The receptionist replied. "I'm from South Figaro". South Figaro, Clyde had never heard of the place and wished he was there or anywhere instead of here. "Nice place?" asked Clyde. "Yeah not bad" replied Baram. "You know we have to escape right" questioned Clyde. "How the hell are we going to do that?" replied Baram. "I know we will thing of something" said Clyde confidently. Suddenly a whip lashed the two of them in the back. "Time to get back to training" said an expressionless grainy voice.

The next 7 hours were torture and the cut on his cheek and now on his back stung the whole time. Blood was spilled all over the training ground from the numerous other soldiers who were bleeding from whip wounds. Each day became a struggle to survive, the only reason the soldiers were able to stay sane was by going to the pub for a few hours after each day, they at least got the money they were promised. Clyde went there with Baram and also met up with Ren again and the 3 of them began plotting a way to escape. Clyde and many of the other soldiers also bought some bedding to add to their planks of wood. The entire city was walled and a huge amount of barbed wire had recently been added the top of the grimy city wall Clyde noticed earlier. The 3 of them had thought of a few plans to escape but realised they didn't consider a variable that made it impossible. On day 10 of training his commander which was the green soldier assigned to his group had them train by running through a long hallway. There was a heavy steel door in this hallway with a sign reading 'DANGER KEEP OUT'. This made Clyde curious. The running in the hallway became a regular part of his training regime, and he noticed the sound of a dog yelping from pain or fear coming from behind the door. The next day it was louder. A few days later it was barking fiercely as if it wanted to kill something. That night in the Pub he explained this to Baram and Ren. "So instead of finding a way to escape you've been listing to a door" accused Baram. "Yeah we don't have time for stupid things like that" agreed Ren. "I just thought it was strange, that's all, thought it was worth mentioning" said Clyde. "Any more ideas for escaping" asked Clyde, they had already gone through about 3 full scale plans and a couple they had discarded more quickly. "Have you heard of sewers?" asked Baram "no" replied Clyde. Living in such a small secluded place Clyde had never heard of a sewer. "It's a complex of drains and pipes which move waste out of the city" explained Baram "waste, what kind of waste" asked Clyde. "Yeah, that's the catch of this plan we will need to swim through people's shit and piss. Ren already being quite drunk dropped his head and came close to vomiting. "So will it work" Clyde asked immediately. "It has a good chance, once we are outside the city walls we will have to sneak past the watch towers and hide in the wood to the west". "That's the best plan yet, how do we get into the sewers?" said an excited Clyde "I don't know yet, I'm sure there must be an entrance in the fortress somewhere, we need to all explore as much as possible in our breaks" Clyde and Ren nodded approval and headed to the barracks to get some sleep.

Next morning Clyde's regiment were made to run in the hall again and this time full on snarling and scratching on walls could be heard in the room. "What's in here?" Clyde asked the Commander. "None of your business private" "so you know then" said Clyde "actually I don't have a clue" replied the commander. A whip followed and Clyde continued running hearing the dog or whatever it was each time he passed the door. That night he didn't go to the pub. Instead he told the guard he was turning in early and went to the barracks. He then sneaked around the complex narrowly avoiding guards until he reached the door. There was a padlock on the handle and the fierce growling was continuing. His friends had no luck finding the sewers and he believed this was the only place they hadn't searched. He ran around for a while and found a hatchet, he hit the padlock several times and it eventually fell off. He then pulled the handle and opened the door slightly so he could peek in.


End file.
